Egan: The game show that bans Canadians. What is Jeopardy!, Alex?Back to video

And yet there it is on the Jeopardy! website (yes, they exclaim the name!). Potential contestants are told to take an online test, which could lead to a live audition in an American city. To take the test, however, a person must register and provide a zip code which, of course, Canadians don’t have.

Dig a little deeper in the site and you come across a Q & A section.

Q:ARE CANADIANS ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THE TEST?

A: “At this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter.”

Wow. And we thought Donald Trump would build that wall, like, after the election.

Here’s the awkward part. The iconic host, the ever-gracious Alex Trebek, a household name in a household game, is not only Canadian-born but rather fond of Ottawa, arguably his second home north of the border.

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Though originally from Sudbury, he spent several years here studying at the University of Ottawa, where he earned two degrees before graduating in 1962. He later worked in radio and television for the CBC. Local? As a student, he roomed in a house just a couple of streets over from me. So he’s something of an Ottawa homie.

A well-known philanthropist, Trebek returned to Ottawa in 2015 to inaugurate the Alex Trebek Alumni Hall on the campus of the university. It was no empty gesture. Trebek, now 75 and the host since 1984, has donated more than $2.25 million to his alma mater and a sign on Séraphin Marion Private bears his name.

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David Barnabe, 43, a public servant in Ottawa, has long wanted to be a contestant on the show. His interest goes back to the 1980s when he travelled to Pittsburgh in an effort to make the teen Jeopardy! tournament. “I even met Alex Trebek down there.”

The show opens up its online test period usually once a year and, in 2016, it was in January. When Barnabe went to take the test again, he had to re-register, then stumbled on the zip code request. No go. On to Google, which had a discussion of the new barrier on Reddit, where users were floating various theories about the anti-Canuck rule.

He’s hoping the Canadian exclusion is a temporary thing.

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A publicist for the show was unable to provide a detailed explanation as to what has changed with Canadian participation in Jeopardy!, but hinted the country’s new anti-spam legislation, in effect since mid-2014, might be a factor.

“As international laws governing how information is shared over the Internet are ever-changing and complex, we are currently investigating how we can accept registrations from potential Canadian contestants,” reads an email response from Alison Shapiro.

“The Jeopardy! Adult, Teen, and College tests have already taken place this year, and we are making every effort to find a solution before the next round of testing is available.”

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The online test consists of 50 questions, with a time limit for each. Those who score best are placed in a pool to be invited to a live audition. Since 2006, more than a million people have tried the test.

“The online test has expanded JEOPARDY!’s contestant pool to include more women, minorities, and students,” the website crows. But not bloody foreigners, apparently.

Could it be we’re just too smart for Americans?

In April 2014, Ottawa public servant Frédérique Delaprée won about $22,000 after twice being Jeopardy! champion. In November 2010, two of three contestants on the same show were current or former Ottawa residents. So there.

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Jeopardy! is one of the few game shows during which important things actually happen. In 2011, IBM’s super-smart computer, nicknamed Watson, made news around the world when it easily defeated two legendary (human) champions.

It was a frightening display of a machine’s ability to comprehend speech and syntax, not to mention having a lightning-quick way of retrieving tiny bits of information. Watson, by the way, was built with key components developed in an IBM lab in Ottawa. So there.

The daily double? Trebek’s had two heart attacks in the past 10 years. Pray this doesn’t give him another one.

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Thanks for today’s article which brings attention to an issue affecting my native country and the show I love. It is true that for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government. However, people are in our contestant pool for 18 months, and we have featured several Canadians as contestants on Jeopardy! this season (at least 7 at last count), including one who will appear this Monday, February 22, and two more who have already taped for appearances in March. We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants. We look forward to having more try out as soon as we are sure we can comply with all Canadian online privacy laws.

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